A question for Travis Wade Beaty

Q: Do you often include children in your stories? What role do they play?

A: I include children in my stories fairly often. Children are full of hope and are themselves a kind of manifestation of hope. So I like to see how cynical or hard-hearted adult characters might respond to being confronted with that kind of limitless optimism of a child.

There’s also that strong desire to protect children which can inspire a lot of fear. And letting a kid down can really haunt a person. So as a parent, I spend a lot of time thinking about that push and pull between hope and fear and all the doubts between.